Equipping Yourself to Engage
with the Media
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
Why PR?
Cost of Advertising - Expensive
Value of Advertising – With no brand, very little
Cost of PR - Inexpensive
Value of PR – Builds brand awareness and allows you to tell a
story
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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What PR can do for you?
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Inform your target about your league, tournament or club
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Drive registration
Raise awareness among potential new sponsors
Help current sponsors see additional value in sponsorships
Increase spectators
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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What else?
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Generate goodwill and excitement about your event or organization
Establish yourself in the community
Promote your teams and athletes
Report your results
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Get Started
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Read the newspaper, watch television and listen to the radio – this will help
you identify who within your local media to contact and what is going on in
your area
Place introductory calls to build your media lists
Or
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Contact sports departments at local newspapers and find out who covers
soccer or youth sports
Contact local television stations and find out who covers local sports
Contact local radio stations and find out if there are programs covering
youth sports or community events
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Interact with the Media
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When you contact media, state your purpose up front and ask if they have
time to speak
Don’t expect them to be interested
Ask about special sections, columns or beats for soccer or youth sport
writers
Find out when deadlines are
Determine their preferred methods of communication
• E-mail
• Fax
• Phone
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Inside the Mind of the Media
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Try to find out what information they want and how they want it
• Ask what is important
• Ask what are their objectives
Members of the Media are busy people, help them by preparing information
ahead of time
• Schedule
• Rosters
• Player bios
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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"Reality Check"
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So what is interesting to the media?
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Youth sports and/or soccer news is not above the fold in today's sports
landscape. Understand that a Thursday night league game will probably
not yield great media coverage and may not even receive interest at all
Human interest stories
Play-offs
Big events
What else?
Ask, they'll tell you...
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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"Connecting with the Media"
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Develop a relationship with the media member who covers soccer or youth
sports
• Find out what you can about them
• Where their interests lie
• What other sports they cover, etc.
Be a resource to the writer
• Offer them the opportunity to contact you for background information,
feedback, perspectives
Find out their personal information
• When you feel you have developed a good relationship - ask if they
have "another" e-mail address that they might prefer you send
information to or a cell phone number that you can call with news and
scores as soon as a game ends.
Respect the media -They "don't have to cover your team/league"
Remember, regardless of how comfortable your relationship becomes you
are ALWAYS on the record
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Now What?
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After preparing all your media contacts, create a distribution list, either email or fax-based, depending upon media preference, to send out
information
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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The Press Release
The press release is a news
story that puts an organization
or individual in the best light
possible, garnering media
coverage
What factors should be
considered when writing?
- Short
- Sweet
- To the Point
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Basic components of a Press Release
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Headline
• The first opportunity to grab an editor’s attention
• It should transmit the core news/message so that the editor
immediately knows what the story is about.
• It should be informative, but not necessarily sensationalized
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Leading off
• The most important part of a release is the lead paragraph
• The lead should answer 5 and if possible 6 questions
– Who?
– What?
– When?
– Where?
– How?
– Why?
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Basic components of a Press Release (cont.)
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Make your case
• The body of your release should bolster and explain the points you
made in the lead.
• Fully describe your story
• You might include a quote or two providing further definition or
endorsement
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Define or remind writers who you are
• If you have a web address, remember to add
• The boilerplate should offer a brief description of your organization
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Boilerplate
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Try to tell your organizations highlights in a few sentences.
About US Youth Soccer – US Youth Soccer - The Game for ALL
Kids!® is the largest youth sports organization in the United States
and member of the US Soccer Federation, the governing body of
soccer in America. US Youth Soccer registers more than 3.2 million
players annually, ages 5 to 19, and over 900,000 administrators,
coaches and volunteers in 55 member state associations. US Youth
Soccer programs provide a fun, safe and healthy environment for
players at every level of the game.
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Some keys to remember for writing and
distributing press releases
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Try to keep the release to one page. Don’t confuse background with the
essentials
Stay away from hype, keep the article factual. Avoid the superlatives and
adjectives
E-mail it, If your contact accepts e-mail to save time and avoid errors
Other than in the case of trademarked names, never use caps. Editors
have to take the time to convert all caps to regular type
Always write from a journalists perspective. Never use “I” or “we” unless it’s
in a quote
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Some keys to remember for writing and
distributing press releases (cont.)
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Include contact information at the top of your release
Follow up with a phone call within a day or two to confirm that the article
was received
Read lots of good newspaper writing, such as the Salt Lake Tribune or New
York Times to get a feel for good writing and what is newsworthy
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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Some keys to remember when working
with photos
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If you have a photo to go with your story, make a note at the top of your
release. PHOTO(S) AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Ask the media outlet if they prefer digital or film photography
If film and you want a photo back, include a self-addressed, stamped
envelope
If digital send photos in a JPG at 200 to 300 dpi resolution. If you’re in
doubt, call the publication and confirm their requirements
Equipping Yourself to Engage with the Media
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What’s your angle?
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You have your media lists
You know what your press release must contain
You know how to get it to the right person
What are you going to write about?